Eadyâ€™s Letter To Spitzer

Following my dismissal, I requested that I be allowed to keep the vehicle and pay the remaining payments, since I personally had singed the lease; however, I was told no and that the Board wanted the vehicle and would make the monthly payments. The Board threatened that if I did not give them the van they would direct the police to have me arrested for stealing BUFNY property. I then made arrangements for Tony Spencer, one of their staff, to pick up the vehicle.

Dear Attorney General Spitzer: The Board you appointed to takeover Black United Fund of New York (BUFNY) has consistently been rude and unresponsive Larry Barton and I, and failed to carryout their financial responsibilities to its creditors. As you also know, your Board of five Black Republican appointees, four from Nassau County: Judge Lance Clark, Bettye Easley, Deloris Kershaw and Briding Newell, who engaged in self-dealing and became Executive Director, and also one William Davis, allegedly from New York City, has destroyed BUFNY.

The Black community, which has protested and confronted you also knows well that this destruction was done either deliberate, i.e., ordered by you, or because of the incompetence of your appointees. While we know that you have given financial assistance to hundreds of white charities, we found, based on information obtained via the Freedom Of Information Law, you refused to give financial assistance to BUFNY via your new board, even though your takeover on May 2, 2003 press release announced that your goal was to help BUNFY flourish. Regardless of the reason, I and Larry Barton were abruptly dismissed on August 29, 2003.

BUFNY had previously leased a van for company use which your Board refused to return to the leasing company and also refused to make the monthly payments. Magnum Leasing, is now threatening to sue me personally for five thousand five hundred and seventy-nine dollars and seventy-five cents ($5,579.75), which includes remaining payments, repossession charges, auction fees and open-end obligation (buyback). Following my dismissal, I requested that I be allowed to keep the vehicle and pay the remaining payments, since I personally had singed the lease; however, I was told no and that the Board wanted the vehicle and would make the monthly payments. The Board threatened that if I did not give them the van they would direct the police to have me arrested for stealing BUFNY property. I then made arrangements for Tony Spencer, one of their staff, to pick up the vehicle.

Additionally, since I was not in the office the day of the firings, August 29, 2003, I was called by the new Board's corporate lawyers, Foreht Last Landau & Katz, LLP, and told that I had been terminated; and that I was not allowed to return to the office because arrangements would be made for me to get my personal belongings. To this day, however, I have not been allowed any access to retrieve my personal property, consisting of over fifty awards and plaques, clothes, and hundreds of other items which I had accumulated over twenty-five years. At one point, I was asked to give an address to where they would mail my belongings. While I strongly disagreed with this process, I provided an address and a list of what I could recall was still there. To date, I have never received anything.

Mr. Larry Barton, former vice president and general manager, has indicated that he also has not been able to retrieve or received his remaining belongings. He also indicated that the Board repeatedly failed to provide requested documents, in the form of personal logs, to assist in dealing with the Internal Revenue Service which had even issued a subpoena.

Mr. Spitzer, I ask that you direct your Board to pay the remaining debt on the vehicle, and allow Mr. Barton and I to get our personal property from BUFNY premises. I understand, however, that BUFNY has lost control of and no longer owns the property, but that some of or all of our property may still be there.

Your immediate attention to the resolution of these outstanding issues is requested.

Mr. Eady, Founder and former president Black United Fund of New York can be reached via kermeady@aol.com

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